Mount Nittany Health looks to expand Penns Valley practice

Services are offered at Penns Valley Area Family Medicine across from the high school on Route 45. But the area’s population is growing, and the need is expanding along with it, Mount Nittany CEO Steve Brown said.

Brown said he would like to see Mount Nittany’s facilities in Penns Valley double in size.

“The population there is growing, and we need to do something,” Brown said.

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Mount Nittany Health offers laboratory services and family medicine at the facility, and sees about 12,000 visits per year in Penns Valley.

Mount Nittany added a doctor, Nick Meyer, last fall at the Penns Valley center. System spokeswoman Nichole Monica said a goal is to provide more services in the community so people don’t have to travel far to access medical care.

Monica said that Mount Nittany wants to add options such as imaging services, evening and weekend hours, and specialists. She said the group has talked to cardiologists and diabetes educators, but space confinements have stalled expansion.

Brown hopes to find a 3- to 5-acre plot on which to build. He said the idea is not to just build for now, but also to plan for the future.

Planning is in the early stages, and officials are looking for space for a new facility. Monica said it’s too early to provide square-footage numbers.

“Our goal is to bring as many services as possible to people in their community,” Monica wrote in an email, “and we are confident that we can work with the local leadership that brought health care to Penns Valley to plan a facility that accommodates the needs of the community and matches the quality of care that our doctors and clinical staff provide to the people that we serve.”

Brown said that Mount Nittany leaders had been eyeing a spot in the proposed Ram Community Centre on school district property, but when plans for the building fell through, they began to look elsewhere.

While Mount Nittany’s main medical facility in College Township has doubled in size in recent years, there also has been growth in areas.

In January, Mount Nittany opened a new family medicine practice in Mifflin County. That center will soon include cardiologists, urologists and general surgeons.

Mount Nittany Health also plans a March opening for a primary care practice, offering imaging and lab services, on Blue Course Drive in Ferguson Township.

The system now operates 15 facilities serving more than five counties.